Workers in Pennsylvania may have a right to compensation after workplace injuries or illnesses that arise due to conditions in the workplace, so these are often considered together when looking at compensation claim statistics. However, breaking down the numbers shows that injuries are much more common than illnesses.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were a total of roughly three million illnesses and injuries in the workplace that did not prove fatal in 2014. Of those, 95.1 percent — about 2.8 million cases — fell into the injury category, and only 4.9 percent were illnesses.
The BLS broke the numbers down further to show where these incidents occurred. About 75 percent of them were in industries that provided services. This isn’t surprising, as the majority of jobs fall into this category — about 82.4 percent of all of the jobs in private industries. The 25 percent of injuries that were left, or 0.7 million injuries, happened in places that produced goods.
This is interesting in that it shows that goods-producing industries are actually more dangerous. There were fewer injuries overall, but they were over-represented when considering that the industry makes up an even smaller percentage of the jobs.
For illnesses, the rates are actually getting better in the short term. The rate in 2014 came in at 15.3 cases of work-related illness for each 10,000 workers who were considered full-time employees. It was 1.3 cases higher back in 2013.
As you can see, the prevalence of injuries in the workplace is something that workers must take into consideration, as they’re far more common than illnesses. In either case, though, workers need to know their rights to compensation.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employer-Reported Workplace Injury and Illness Summary,” accessed Jan. 28, 2016